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This page is a suggested method of styling your wiki - you may wish to edit it to suit your wiki's tastes. You may also wish to add links to various articles that best show off your wiki's design. This MoS was based off WoWWiki's Manual of Style. Remove this notice when the article is finished. ---- This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles. These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for this wiki, but a more expansive set of style guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style. A sample article based off these guidelines can be found on Project:Manual of Style/Sample. Article layout One of the most important parts of wiki editing is how to structure an article. The structure is a powerful thing: it dictates what information the reader reads and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where it goes, and how it might be written. Structure has the power to inform or confuse the same way good or bad writing does. Keep a well structured article, and you're more likely to have a high quality one. Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Keep it logical, but feel free to forsake strict logic for readability. Wherever possible, try to have an introduction for each section. Just like the article as a whole, the section should start with an introduction and then have its subsections below it. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Too many nested sections usually leads to a confusing or unreadable article. Above all, keep your layout consistent. Don't throw your reader a curve ball too often. The following sections will offer some good advice on keeping your articles clean, consistent, and clear. Lead section Unless an article is very short, it should start with an introductory lead section, before the first subheading. The lead should not be explicitly entitled Introduction or any equivalent header. The table of contents, if displayed, appears after the lead section and before the first subheading. The lead should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable. It should be between one or two paragraphs long, and should be written in a clear and accessible style so that the reader is encouraged to read the rest of the article. If possible, make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. For example, write "King Frederick II was King of Terra during and after the Second War." The first time the article mentions the title, put it in bold using three apostrophes — article title produces article title. Avoid other uses of bold in the first sentence, except for alternative titles of an article; for example: The blood elves, or sin'dorei, are a race comprised of former high elves... Follow the normal rules for italics in choosing whether to put part or all of the title in italics. This will mainly apply to the titles of books and games: The Demon Soul is a novel in the War of the Ancients trilogy. Do not put links in the bold reiteration of the title in the article's lead sentence. For example, "The night elves are an ancient race..." versus "The night elves are an ancient race." Table of contents A table of contents will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings (unless forced by the below options). By default this will be left-aligned above the first section heading. * To the force a TOC position (left-aligned): __TOC__ * To completely remove the TOC from a page: The table of contents can be right-aligned - but only if it is very long (over 15 entries) and an information box is not occupying the top-right corner of the article (rare exceptions exist). * Right-aligned TOC that floats next to text: Section headings Use the (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to . Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Also, do not use wikilinks in subject headings. When edited, these sections become confusing in the edit history because of the link code. Consider instead putting the word in the first or second sentence of the section and linking it there. Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Founding and history", not "Founding and History". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere. Avoid special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of the ampersand, use the word "and" unless the ampersand is part of a formal name. Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep it short, avoid unnecessary words or redundancy in headings, i.e. avoid a, an, and the, pronouns, repeating the article title, and so on. Also, try to avoid giving identical titles to different sections. Images Images make an article memorable and pretty. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up. Large images such as screenshots should use the "thumb" (example: ) option which displays large images as thumbnails. Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an infobox is not being used in an article, a right aligned picture in the lead section is encouraged. For more information, see . Galleries When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, and having inline images be detract from the readbility of an articles, the use of a section is encouraged. Image:Example.jpg|Caption Image:Example.jpg|Caption Organizing short information Unordered lists An unordered list organizes short entries belonging to a single group. To create an unordered list, start each entry on a new line, with an asterisk ("*") at the left margin. If the entries are very short, enclose in a columnizing div for easier reading. An example from the rogue article: Scoundrels and thieves are trained in Stealth (Dex) and Thievery (Dex), plus any four skills from the rogue class skill list: *Acrobatics (Dex) *Athletics (Str) *Bluff (Cha) *Dungeoneering (Wis) *Insight (Wis) *Intimidate (Cha) *Perception (Wis) *Stealth (Dex) *Streetwise (Cha) *Thievery (Dex) Scoundrels and thieves are trained in Stealth (Dex) and Thievery (Dex), plus any four skills from the rogue class skill list: *Acrobatics (Dex) *Athletics (Str) *Bluff (Cha) *Dungeoneering (Wis) *Insight (Wis) *Intimidate (Cha) *Perception (Wis) *Stealth (Dex) *Streetwise (Cha) *Thievery (Dex) Definition lists A definition list organizes short entries in a term-description format. To create a definition list, start each entry on a new line, with a semicolon (";") at the left margin for terms and a colon (":") at the left margin for description. A term may have multiple descriptions, and multiple terms can have the same descriptions, if needed. If the entries are all in 1-to-1 term-description pairs, a two-column table can also used instead. An example from the halfling article: Halflings receive the following racial traits. ; Bold : Halflings gain a +5 racial bonus to saving throws to end effects caused by fear keyword powers. ; Nimble Reaction : Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to AC against opportunity attacks. ; Second Chance : Halflings gain second chance as an encounter power. Halflings receive the following racial traits. ; Bold : Halflings gain a +5 racial bonus to saving throws to end effects caused by fear keyword powers. ; Nimble Reaction : Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to AC against opportunity attacks. ; Second Chance : Halflings gain second chance as an encounter power. Tables Tables should use a "class" design when possible, and should include as little 'fancy' formatting as possible. Tables can also be made sortable by adding a "sortable" class. For long tables, it is recommended to create an "alt" class to alternate row colours to enhance readability. The below examples use "toccolours" as a class, but this is only for the purposes of demonstration, and isn't generally recommended. With row headings, table caption, sortable | |} Without row headings, with alt rows | |} Navigation boxes Navigation boxes can use or be based off . Generally they should be placed at the end of an article, above the categories. Expand with more details and examples. Article message boxes Add me! You may want to look at Wikipedia:Article message boxes. See also, references, external links, and navigational tables The last sections, if they exist, should always be "See also", followed by "References", followed by "External links". In the case of "See also", use bullets to list the internal links. Under the references section should be placed . Finally, in the external links should be all external links. Categories Categories should be added to the end of an article - a full list can be found on . They take the form Category:Categoryname. All articles should be accessible starting from Category:Browse, via subcategories. Disambiguation A disambiguation line is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article with the same or similar title. The templates and can be used for this purpose. For example, on the Sly Flourish article: Quotations Format a long quote (over four lines) as an italicized block quotation, which will be indented from both margins. Do not enclose the block quote in quotation marks. To format a block quotation, do not use the wiki indentation mark ":" — instead, use the HTML element. Punctuation For most purposes, follow the punctuation, capitalization, and italicization style used in the rulebooks. Hyphens, dashes, and minus signs In most cases, join prefixes without a hyphen: untrained, reroll, subrace, multiclassing. A few prefixes need hyphens: half-elf, self-targeted, ex-paladin. Hyphenate phrases used as modifiers: low-light vision, 1st-level at-will attack power. Numeric ranges are indicated by an en-dash (–): 1–6 (1–6). Negative numbers and subtraction are indicated by a minus sign (−): a −2 (−2) penalty, Str modifier − 2. Capitalization Capitalize proper names of people, places, and organizations, real or fictional: Wizards of the Coast, Drizzt Do'Urden, House Jorasco. Capitalize well known brand names and their abbreviations: Dungeons & Dragons, D&D. Do not append symbols such as ™ or ® to trademarks. Dungeon Master and DM are not well known trademarks, but are capitalized by convention. Capitalize most abbreviations formed from initial letters: NPC, AC. Do not capitalize quantitative units: hp, gp, 3d6, (1)d20. Capitalize defenses, abilities, and their abbreviations: Armor Class, Fortitude, Dexterity, Dex. Capitalize feats and class features: Improved Defenses, Sneak Attack. Capitalize rituals: Create Water, Tenser's Floating Disk. Do not capitalize classes or subclasses, except at the beginning of a sentence: fighter, weaponmaster. Do not capitalize races or subraces, except at the beginning of a sentence or including a proper noun: eladrin, moon elf, Llewyrr elf. Do not capitalize keywords, except at the beginning of a sentence: arcane, reliable. Do not capitalize page titles on this wiki, unless the subject named by the title is capitalized. The first letter of every wiki title is automatically capitalized, but case insensitive. There is no consensus on paragon path and epic destiny capitalization. The sourcebooks go both ways, so either way may be acceptable. There is no consensus on powers, although source books capitalize them in the power title block, and use standard case when found in-text. Italics Italicize and capitalize the titles of books, periodicals, and computer games: the Player's Handbook, Dragon magazine, Neverwinter. Enclose within quotation marks, rather than italicize, book chapter, external article, or blog posting titles: "How to Play", "This Week in D&D". Do not quote links to articles on this same wiki. Italicize and capitalize named campaign settings: Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun. Italicize uncommon foreign words: Zweihänder, yōkai. Italicize powers: cure light wounds, elven accuracy. Italicize magic items: bag of holding, longsword +1. Transclude the template on a page to italicize the title shown at the top of the page, when appropriate. The template also italicizes the page title unless noitalictitle is passed as a parameter. Writing : “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” -- Stephen King We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you're editing wikis, you're both academic and artist. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you have to skillfully balance both. Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose. Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper or a newspaper article. Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you don't need to give a detailed history of humans on the page about Winston Churchill. Consider the article's title as your point of origin and write from that perspective. Make use of the wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information. Write from an impersonal perspective. Do not use "I." For example, do not write, "Hellscream was a fervent member of the Horde. He served both the Old and New Horde, As far as I know." Avoid drawing attention to the author (yourself) as much as possible. Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up. Conclusion Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article a stronger skeleton. It's ultimately your job as an editor to put meat on it. See also * Project:Manual of Style/Sample - a sample wiki article. External links * Wikipedia's Manual of Style * ''UNSC Marine Corps'' on Halopedia * ''Development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'' on Wikipedia * ''Assassin's Creed'' on Assassin's Creed Wiki Category:Organisation